SLA NEWSREEL

Another successful year for Speech presentations!

At the 2018 Legion Speech Competition, St. Lawrence Academy students once again sweep the competition with their well-written essays and strong oratory skills. Congratulations to all of the students who competed at both the school competition and local competition! We look forward to the following students continuing on to compete in the zone:

Junior: 1st Place Elizabeth M. 3rd Place Benjamin M.

Intermediate: 1st Place Madeleine J.

2017 Christmas Musical Collects Pyjamas for the Children in Chernobyl.

Baa Baa Bethlehem collects pyjamas for the children in Chernobyl. Students from K-8 participate in the Annual Christmas musical and collect pyjamas as the admission to send with Miss Shaw to the children in Belarus in April. Students sing, dance and play musical instruments to augment the story about finding the perfect gift for the King. It is a comfort to know that God just wants us to humbly serve Him. It is all the gift He needs!

St. Lawrence Academy Raises over $2000.00 for the children of Chernobyl

Miss Shaw leads the charge at SLA's first Read-A-Thon which encourages children to find sponsors to support their reading every day. Collecting a flat pledge or pledges per minute, students read every night for the month of November. Money raised will purchase new books for children in Belarus at a city orphanage and hospital. Miss Shaw will spend a week in Belarus in April to bring our gifts and donations. We are excited to be a part of this initiative: Canadians for Chernobyl and hope that this will become a yearly event.

SLA Fall Open House and Scholastic Book Fair

Scholastic Book Fair was our most successful yet, raising $2295.00 for the SLA staff! Thank you parent association representatives for organizing and volunteering at the event. Students also enjoyed acting as tour guides, showing off their work, and introducing their parents to their teachers.

Our First XCountry Memorial run to honour our wonderful teacher and friend raised just over $360.00 for cancer research and was a perfect tribute to a man who embodied school spirit. A wonderful addition this year was the involvement from students from St. Mark's in Prescott and the Brockville Legion Running Club. Thank you to everyone, and to parent volunteers, who made this event one to remember! Great job everyone!

St. Lawrence Academy Sweeps Local Speeches Competition.

After much hard work and practice, SLA students were loud and clear during this year's Legion Speech Competition. Every student from Grades 1 through 8 wrote and presented a 3-5 minute speech to parents and school mates and then to Prescott's Branch 97 competitors and their families. With an impressive array of topics ranging from birth countries like China and India to the affect Artificial Intelligence is having on our World today, SLA students impressed all with their mastery of the five paragraph essay and projection and pronunciation during presentations.

SLA's Christmas Musical, "Wrapping All The Way", Christmas joy to the over 250 people in attendance and warmth to 69 children who were the recipients of the new cozy pyjamas patrons brought for admission in tot he Christmas show. A new site will have to be made a top priority next year as there was barely a seat in the house for the special Christmas Musical. A show that helped remind people to look beyond the glitter and glitz of the Christmas holidays to see the truth in the birth of a Messiah.

A Sad Goodbye to a One-Of-A-Kind Teacher.

It is with great sadness and broken hearts that we say goodbye to SLA's gentleman teacher who held the children's attention and imagination with his booming musical voice and wonderful stories for the past three years. Mr. MacNeil joined our staff three years ago, working with the Junior and Intermediate classes directly and passing on his wisdom and joy. Every student who had the pleasure to learn under Mr. MacNeil grew intellectually, socially and spiritually, he truly did make a difference at SLA and changed all of our lives for the better.

We will miss you until we meet again!

WE DID IT! 5 for 50 Campaign a Success!

A HUGE 'Thank You' to all supporters of the SLA Bus Drive (with a special mention to Dr. & Mrs. Bhatt and our Board President Fraser Lashinger who each donated $5,000.00 to help kick-start the campaign). Thanks to all of our donors, we were able to purchase a new bus to start the 2016-17 school year! Fundraisers will continue to occur throughout the year to pay off the remainder of the cost - but we wanted to take the time to thank you all for the gift you have given us!

2015-16 End Of Year Awards and A Good Bye to Mrs. Hunter

SLA Students Austin M. and Finnian B. Win Top Honours

A small unveiling ceremony was recently held to recognize Prescott's 3 star students. SLA's Austin M. and Finnian B.'s Remembrance Day entries placed in District and/or Provincial levels and are now on display in the Hall for generations to come. Congratulations! - C. Alexander

SLA wins Top Honours at the Rideau St. Lawrence Science Fair

Congratulations to Anastasia J. who was awarded seven awards last night at the RSLSF.

1st place in Junior Psychology

the Psychology Award

the Documentation Award

the 2nd Best Junior overall

the Health and Wellness Award

3rd place for Best In Show

and an all expense paid trip to the Canada Wide Science Fair 2016.

Special mention was given to her presentation and interaction with the judges. She and three other students from Leeds and Grenville will be headed to Montreal for a week in May. Go SLA!

SLA's 2nd Annual Spelling Bee

Congratulations to Eamon B., Elizabeth M. and Finnian B. who each won first place in SLA's 2nd Annual Spelling Bee Competition.

St. Lawrence Academy Sweeps at the Legion Speech Competition!

If you weren’t with us to witness the local speech competition last
month – you missed unbelievable results at the Prescott Legion’s 2015 Speech
Competition! The St. Lawrence Academy swept away the competition with original,
well-written and well-presented speeches!

We are excited to see Anastasia, Benjamin and
Elizabeth compete in the next level of competition at the Kemptville Legion, March
5th! Congratulations to
everyone!

UPDATE: Benjamin M., Elixzabeth M. and Anastasia J. all place 1st in the second level of Legion Speeches Competition in Kemptville. Great Work and good luck as you continue to the next level of competition!

UPDATE: Benjamin M. places second in the third level of speech competition. Congratulations to Anastasia J. and Elizabeth M. who also competed at this level and made SLA proud!

LOVE STINKS - SLA Makes a Stink For Love

A new tradition started at SLA. Students and Staff
took on Cross Town Impact’s Love Challenge and raised awareness for
local support groups. Students learned
more about the Local Food Bank, The Salvation Army, Soles 4 Souls and Soap 4
Souls which support causes like homelessness, malnutrition, water purification
and cleanliness.

Grades 4 - 7 Students Honoured to be a part of Founder's Day in Prescott

Mr. MacNeil’s and Miss Paquette’s
class were honoured to be a part of Prescott’s Founder’s Day Celebration and
the dedication of the new Riverwalk Park at the waterfront. Students were excited to share their
mid-century poem with the over 200 present for the event including dignitaries
and town historians.

SLA students record our Christmas advertisement for JRfm radio station.

SLA's 2nd Annual Christmas Musical "We Three Spies" was a HUGE success with the highest attendance ever and raising over 80 pyjamas for the local Jammies for Christmas fundraiser. Great Work!

WE REMEMBER

SLA was well represented by all students who took part in this year's Poster, Essay and Poetry Contests at Branch 97's Remembrance Day Contests. We are proud to congratulate the following students who were honoured for their efforts. (Pictured Below). Special recognition must be paid to Zaida B., Finnian B., Anastasia J. and Austin M. whose work continued on to the Zone level of competition and to Austin M. and Finnian B. who each won first place at the Zone Level and will now proceed to the Provincial level of competition. Wow!

Make a Joyful Noise!

So exciting! The Grade 6,7 class was assigned their instruments today! Thank you to Mrs. Hosick and friends and family for loaning and donating your instruments to our class. And now, the process begins!

Personal Bests at Final Cross Country Meet of the Year.

Congratulations to all of our students who all beat their personal bests at the year's final track meet for 2015. A special note of recognition to nine of our students who ran their way to top ten finishes, Congratulations!

St. Lawrence Academy Fall Open House and Book Fair.

My highlight of October at SLA was the Open House. It was really fun because the kids got to show their parents around the whole school! It was cool to show my parents the work that I had done and the work we were doing. There was a book fair in the gym as well and there was some awesome stuff (to buy). There was a range of books from kindergarten to pre-teen. Once we were finished showing our parents around, we got to play with our friends! I played outside on the play structure. There were also yummy treats (baked by the teachers). It was the highlight of (my) October! - L. H. Student Grade 5

Scholastic Book Fair Oct 21, 22 and 23

What a success!

SLA surpasses our goal with over $2000.00 of books purchased by family, friends and the Prescott community. That means almost $1000.00 worth of new teacher resources. Thank you all for supporting this P.A. fundraiser and to all of the parents who organized and gave their time.

SLA Takes 1st place in the Regional Spelling Bee of Canada Regional Competition in Kingston.

St. Lawrence Academy beat their personal bests from last year's results. Congratulations to Shaelan, Elizabeth and Eamon for a fantastic first year participating in the Bee. Great job Zaida and Madeleine for making it to the second round, for Anastasia, who conquered her nerves and spelt her way through to the sixth! WOW! For Gabrielle who was able to beat last year's performance to get to the third round and to Finn Brophy, who swept in to win FIRST PLACE in the Junior Division a...t the 2015 Regional Spelling Bee Competition! SLA is so proud of all of you!

But perhaps the highest honour was being called over by competition organizers and photographers to ask who the students in uniform were. All judges commented on the comradery and sportmanlike attitude of the St. Lawrence Academy students who not only cheered on their schoolmates, but all other students in the competition. SLA - Come and See The Difference!

Open House a Success!

SLA's 2nd Annual Spring Open House saw three new families register for the 2015-16 school year. The evening was filled with Festival songs, our French re-tellings of well-known fairytales (which can be seen under the French tab ) and a fun family Scavenger Hunt which led parents and families through each and every classroom. The Early Bird deadline may have passed, but SLA registration will remain open and interested families are invited to contact the school to know more or to book a visit. What an exciting kick-off to the upcoming school year!

SLA News Club Turns Out it's First Student-Produced Newsletter!

SLA Students bring you their first Monthly Newsletter written and put together entirely by the SLA Yearbook/Newsletter Club. Remember to take a look here on our website under the Calendartab to see their amazing work!

SLA Students Rewarded all 3 top Prizes in the Rotary Club Essay Contest!

The St. Lawrence Academy is so proud of the Rotary Club's Essay contest results where students were encouraged to put life situations to the Rotary '4-way test'. Congratulations to Mrs. Nandoo's Class and Mr. MacNeil's class for the exemplary work and a special congratulations to our 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners!

SLA Sweeps Legion Speech Competition!

Amidst some very stiff competition, SLA's strong and clear voices sealed the deal at this year's Legion Speech Competition! Winning 2nd and 3rd in the Primary Division, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the Junior Division and 1st, and 2nd place in the Intermediate. We are so proud! Great Work!

St. Lawrence Academy Visits Bruce and Taylor.

Mrs. Joanisse and Mr. MacNeil visited 104.9 JRfm this morning, Monday, January 19, 2015 to share their passion for all that St. Lawrence Academy has to offer. Our fantastic Arts program with Mrs. Hosick, remedial and enrichment opportunities, small student to teacher ratios and our growing community involvement - we have so much to be excited about - thank you Bruce, Taylor and JRfm for the opportunity and for the chance to raise money for the United Way at the same time.

SLA will be host to the SGCofC Spelling Bee!

SLA Christmas Musical

The St. Lawrence Academy's Christmas Musical - which saw our highest attendance EVER with over 150 parents, family, friends and community members jamming in to our school gymnasium, not only provided a perfect venue to display the students skills on bells, ukuleles, acting and singing, but also successfully saw over fifty new pajamas added to the local 'Jammies For Christmas' fundraiser. Congratulations Mrs. Hosick, Mrs. Joanisse and SLA students grades K-7! Your hard work and dedication was certainly evident in the masterful performance of the 'Christmas County Spelling Bee'. What a joy to watch, and the message was clear! How do we spell Christmas? L*O*V*E*

We Remember

St. Lawrence Academy students were touched by the Remembrance Day Ceremony at the cenotaph in Prescott, ON. A wonderful reminder of the price paid for freedom.

St. Lawrence Academy students have been awarded for their hard word and creativity dedicated to the memory of our fallen soldiers, nurses and doctors. (See 'results')

SLA Cross Country Meets - Beating Personal Bests

Every student at the St. Lawrence Academy took part in the Elgin Gladys T. Memorial run and St. Micheal's Invitational in Kemptville this Fall and saw major growth from one meet to the next. With help from Mrs. Hunter, our Queens track team graduate, teaching us about dynamic stretching, warming up, pacing and injury prevention, SLA students saw marked improvements in their finishing times and are looking forward to next year's competition. What a high energy day building up our children's excitement for physical activity and healthy competition.A special thanks to all of the parent support.

Massive Donation From CeGep Heritage College

Much thanks to David Giesbrecht and his associates at CeGep's IT Department in Gatineau who very generously donated over 25 laptops, computers, and other computer hardware to our St. Lawrence Academy students. Without your gift, and the selfless donation of time and talent from our very own parent IT Portfolio Manager Rowland Taylor, we would not have the abundance of computers in our lab, classrooms and library that we do today.

WowZa Wednesdays - A Homeschooling Partnership

So what is
this: 'Wowza Wednesday'?

To reach out to the home schooling
community, a concept discussed for years at SLA,
staff met throughout the summer to organize and plan a pilot program to
encourage home schooling families to become a part of our community. Offering subjects like Phys. Ed., French and Music for a fee, it is our projection that
SLA students will ultimately be able to enjoy
taking part in more team sport activities and home schooling families will
receive a chance to take part in a larger social atmosphere not regularly
available to them. Our first term -
starting on Sept 10th and running for 11 weeks, has almost already reached full
enrolment (capped at a very manageable 10 students for the first term) and
staff are excited about what the new program can offer our student body. The program will be evaluated every term to
ensure it is beneficial for all involved, but staff are already excited to see
the benefits in our Phys. Ed. program and the opportunity to compete in team
sports in the future. Ultimately, WowZa
Wednesdays will be a profitable program that will display our strengths to a
community who already believes in finding education alternatives. What a partnership!

SLA Carnival Day

Ring Toss, Big Time Bowling, Treasure Dig, Face painting... SLA families got together and created their very own carnival for the Prescott community. What a great way to become a visible presence in the area. If you didn't get to join us - we are sure to repeat the Carnival again next year! Start thinking of your game now!

Success! End of Year Ceremony and BBQ a perfect end to a great year!

St. Lawrence Academy finishes the year with a bang honouring SLA students for their Academic achievements, growth and school spirit. Board Member Fraser Laschinger joined us to present the new "Leader of Tomorrow" Award and SLA staff w excited to include two awards that will remain at the school as a ongoing reminder of our school's commitment to the future.

SLA P.D. Day Sports Camp- 17 new student visitors!

Friday, May 30th 8:00 - 4:00 - St. Lawrence Academy hosted local Public and Catholic school kids in our first P.D. Day Art/Sports Camp. Children were invited to join SLA students for a day of fun competing in team sports, showing our creative side with team flags and cheers, BBQ hamburgers and hotdogs and settling ourselves with popcorn and a movie on the BIG screen - ALL for free! It was a great day to see what St. Lawrence Academy is all about.

SLA a presence at the Augusta Business Fair and Expo

Friday, May 2, 6 to 9pm; Saturday, May 3, 9am to 3pm at the Leo Boivin Community Centre, Prescott.

VISITOR ATTENDANCE IS FREE. Lots to do and see for the whole family. Fireman's Breakfast, Saturday at 9am, cost $5. Cars, trucks on display. Horse rides, bouncy castle and games for the kids. Business displays for the adults. Come out and see what your local businesses have to offer and support SLA as we become a visible and active part of our community!

7th Annual Spring Fling - Saturday May 3rd, 2014

Our 7th Annual Spring Fling was a smash hit! Reaching well past our fundraising goal, St. Lawrence Academy is in a healthy position to face another year and provide education excellence to your children! A special, heart-felt thank you to the Spring Fling Committee, parents, family, friends and alumni who came to show their support; and to the students at SLA for providing some of our most creative and most profitable art work to date. Our Arts program is like no other!

4 Gold and a Shield at the Lions Music Festival

SLA takes home 4 golds in the choral and ensemble division and scores two 90% marks in the percussion category at the Lions Music Festival! The Adjudicator, a music Professor from Western University, recognizes the student's hard work, technique and sheer enjoyment as reasons behind the judge's choice to reward SLA with such high honours. Under the direction of Mrs. Caroline Hosick, SLA students have never had a stronger showing and it was a thrill to be a part of this wonderful day. Congratulations students, for all of your hard work and dedication. We can't wait to see you at the Star Performance!

Mayor Todd Celebrates Earth Day With SLA.

Thursday April 24, 2014, SLA celebrated Earth Day with a spring clean up, a school yard chalk drawing and a tree planting joined by Prescott's Mayor, Brett Todd. It was an honour to have the Mayor join us for the afternoon. Thank you family and friends who came out to celebrate with us: to Tony Hicks for videotaping the process of creating our Earth Day chalk art, to the Mayor for planting a tree in our back yard and to Stonemarx for engraving a wonderful stone keepsake to commemorate the event. We have a wonderful parent and town community! Happy Earth Day!

2014 Open House a HUGE success!

April 3rd's Open House was a thrill as parents, students, teachers and friends joined us to celebrate the completion of a second term. Early bird re-enrollment was a success as most of our current parents and three new children pre-enrolled for the 2014-2015 school term! We expect many, many more. Thank you to the teachers who worked so hard to get the school ready, provided the snacks and prepared the students to lead parents and visitors on a tour through our hallowed halls to show off our new computer lab, library and each classroom. Mr. W. and Mr. E., your wonderful stage was appreciated during our opening ceremonies. A special mention to Mrs. Hosick and her cousin who surprised us all with colour and spirit by coming in on the weekend to re-paint our doors and halls. WOW! What a difference a splash of colour made!

Regional Spelling Bee Competition

C-o-n-g-r-a-t-u-l-a-t-i-o-n-s to SLA students for representing our school at the Regional Spelling Bee competition in Ottawa. We are thrilled to report that our five SLA students spelt their way to the first, third and fifth round! We are excited for next year's Regionals and can't wait to start preparation in September 2014.

Published Author Helen Mason Visits SLA

Helen Mason visited the hallowed halls of St. Lawrence to share with each class her new projects. The SK 1 class was very excited to hear about her work about Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield and Mr. Parishes' 4,5,6s felt honoured to give their opinions and ideas for Ms. Masons next teen novel. What a treat!

Royal Legion Speech Competition

Wonderful Work St. Lawrence Academy! We were honoured to participate in the regional speech competition where Zack F. and Riley S. were awarded for their participation and claimed 2nd prize in the Junior category and 3rd in the Primary category. You were all great representatives of our school, showed confidence and poise and made us very proud.

Brockville Operatic Society Poster Contest

Congratulations to Shaelan from Grade 1 who won first place in the Primary division for her work in the Alice in Wonderland Colouring Contest.

Legion Remebrance Day Poster and Poetry Contest

Congratulations to all our 2014 winners! Out of 12 possible categories that we could have placed, and 210 entries from surrounding schools, students at SLA won 9 of the awards! 2 of our students went on to compete provincially and placed 2nd and 3rd in the colour poster contests. Congratulations! Job well done!

2013-Science Fair

We are Worth Our Weight In Gold!! - Canada Wide Science Fair Winners! Congratulations to Alaina Ng who received a Gold Medal in Junior competition and the Junior Discovery Award for her project "Phast Phallanges." Christian (gr 8) and Adrian (Alumni) Au won a Bronze Medal at the Intermediate level for their project " Hit Me With Your Best Shot."

The Canada Wide Science Fair took place in Lethbridge Alberta! St. Lawrence Academy Alumni Abigael and Bryony Schonewille also competed! We are so proud of you all!!